Not So Little - The Little Rann of Kutch

 

Hello friends, hope the start of 2026 is fantastic for you. 2025 ended with one of the best trips I have had to date, and looking forward to having many more in the coming years.  

Since I had an amazing time, let me take you on a virtual tour to start your 2026 with a bang, so let set go to Little Rann quickly.

Light action camera 

In this section, I will update you on how this trip concluded and what we did. This includes a recap of the journey, the wildlife we encountered, and the photos we captured.

I wanted to visit the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) for a long time, but somehow it wasn’t happening. This time, all due credit to Vishnu, he informed me about his plan to visit LRK and asked me to join. Additionally got to know that Saurabh and Jogi both will be leading the tour, so it was like a dream come true. 

The tour finalized with a group of 16, the travel started with a mix of train and air travel to reach Ahmedabad, and then to the field of LRK. 

Normally, we start the safari around 3 pm, but here we had morning time to warm up and settle down with the camera before we reach the core part. Therefore, the morning warm-up started with Vulture Point, where the count of vultures and eagles was more than the count of people present there. This is rare that we get so many vultures in one place. Getting vultures so close and in such numbers is just difficult; this is possible only at a place like LRK

After spending some good time, we reached the hotel to freshen up and get ready for the main session in the field to capture as many unique offerings as we can. I know you are eager to know the fun part, so let's move to the next section. 

The Fun-tastic Moment

In total, we had six safaris to explore and capture the specialties of the land. The fun element was to find the rare species in such a huge land. Typical dry land with endless boundaries, with a challenge to find small, and that is too camouflaged most of the time with the surrounding.

With session by session, we were fulfilling the bucket, but with greed to find more, we started with Vultures and eagles, and now we were adding the list of raptors like eagles, harriers, Kestrel, and Amor Falcon of the world, but that was just a starter main course was yet to come.

After taking on raptors, our focus was to find fox, sort ear owl, pelicans, flamingo, storks, the speed star Peregrine falcon, etc

We were lucky to get one be one everything that we wanted, especially peregrine, fox, and wild ass in the evening, though sunset teased us by setting before giving the desired shots. 

Eye-level shots of eared owl and Sykes’s nightjar, finding of white tail lapwing, common starling, and sirkir Malkoha were just amazing. First to find such birds and with a close encounter was just outstanding, I am short of words to describe the same, rather you can check out pictures to understand and feel the beauty yourselves, do share your feelings once you check out the pictures. 

Wait a do not go anywhere, this is not the end, this is just an interval time of the movie, Dhurandhar is yet to come. 

The Dhurandhar

The Dhurandhar of the trip is yet to be disclosed, you must be thinking so may stuff already we got now what else could be surprising.

The master stroke first came from Hedgehog; this was the biggest surprise (rarest of the rare) in my journey of 10 years. God just gifted us a lifetime memory, hence it deserves to be called a big Dhurandhar of the wild. 

The next is none other than Hyena, the nocturnal and shy animal, it hardly gives you time to capture because it comes out in the dark, so capturing is difficult due darkness. We got Hyena during morning time, thankfully it wasn’t dark, plus it was going towards the den, so we got decent time to capture, getting Hyena so openly with more than 10 minutes is almost impossible, hence it deserves special mention as Dhurandhar.

The master class

When you get rare sightings, but what if you miss the shot or don’t take it effectively, it definitely hurts. This is where the expert plays the role. Saurabh and Jogi were taking a master class during the break time and reviewing pictures from time to time, and guiding us to make improvements so that we don’t miss out on opportunities. I take this opportunity to thank Saurabh and Jogi for their knowledge sharing and for helping us to improve. 

Now, at the end, please look at the BT’s World section to see exciting pictures of the tour. Do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks, team NEI, for managing the tour so smoothly. You people are rocking, keep it up. 

Gopal bhai and team – Your efforts and knowledge helped us get memories of life lifetime, many thanks  

Co-Travelers – We will meet you soon. Many thanks for the lovely time. Dhruv  Sir, apart from the Chemistry subject, you need to spread knowledge of astrology to get a wild card entry in the trip 😆

Special mention - Kidos Mayesha and Arin, it was lovely meeting you both. I was amazed to see your interest in nature, especially in this mobile generation. 

BT’s World

Short-eared Owl

Preregrine Falcon

Hedgehog

Desert Fox

                                                                                           

  Hyena

                                                                              

  Sykes's Nightjar

                                                                                  

Wild Ass

Sirkeer Malkoha

White Tailed Lapwing

Egyptian Vulture

Pelican

White Stork

Common Starling

Scops Owl

Steppe Eagle

Owlet

Rose ringed Parakeet

Desert Fox

Hyena

Montagu's Harrier

Imperial Eagle

Kestral

Desert Fox

Shot-eared Owl

Peregrine Falcon

Wild Ass